Thursday, 31 December 2015

Pakistani woman along with her four children leaves for Syria to join ISIS

Pakistani woman along with her four children leaves for Syria to join ISIS

Lahore (Web Desk) – A Lahore-based woman along with her four children left for Syria to join terrorist group Islamic State.
As per details, Bushra, informed her husband that she was going to
Kasur but later her husband came to know that she was on her way to
Syria through Iran for joining IS along with the kids. The eldest among
them is 15-year-old and the youngest is nine years old.
Meanwhile, a civilian intelligence agency has reported that around 20
men, women and children connected with Bushra’s network left for
Islamic State.
On Thursday, a team comprising personnel of CTD and intelligence
agency raided Bushra’s house in Jauhar Town and arrested her husband
Mehr Hamid.
“During initial interrogation, Hamid said his wife Bushra Bibi left
for Syria along with their three daughters and a son last July and
joined the IS. She informed him on WhatsApp that she had joined the IS
along with the children as she was impressed by the teaching of its
chief Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi,” Hamid said.
Bushra did M Phil from Punjab University and was honorary principal
at Noor-ul-Hudaa Islamic Center situated in Town Ship, Lahore.
On Tuesday, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested
eight suspected members of the Islamic State for planning to establish a
terrorist network and carry out attacks in the country. The eight
suspects were arrested after anti-terror police raided their hideout in
Daska.
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group, which controls wide swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Earlier, British media reported that hundreds of young women and
girls are leaving their homes in western countries to join Islamist
fighters in the Middle East, causing increasing concern among
counter-terrorism investigators.

Girls as young as 14 or 15 are travelling mainly to Syria to marry
terrorists, bear their children and join communities of fighters, with a
small number taking up arms. Many are recruited via social media.
Women and girls appear to make up about ten per cent of those leaving
Europe, North America and Australia to link up with terrorists groups.
France has the highest number of female militant recruits, with 63 in
the region — about 25 per cent of the total — and at least another 60
believed to be considering the move.

20 men, women, children from Lahore join Daesh, go to Syria

ISLAMABAD: On the morning of September 12, the female principal of a
Lahore-based Islamic center left home along with her four children
telling her husband that she was going to Kasur for Dars-e-Quran but
never returned.

A week later, Khalid felt relieved on
receiving a call from his wife. Bushra was in Quetta. However, the
conversation that followed was not music to Khalid’s ears; she was on
her way to Syria through Iran for joining Daesh along with the kids. The
eldest among them is 15-year-old and the youngest is nine years old.

Incidentally,
two other ladies went missing the same day along with their children
from Lahore. One of them was the sister of an anchor who reported her
disappearance to Police after failing to search them through personal
connections.

Apparently, the government is in a state of denial
about Daesh’s presence but the efforts are in progress on ground with
some major breakthroughs have been achieved which are being kept
unannounced though.

A civilian intelligence agency has reported
that around 20 men, women and children connected with Bushra’s network
left for Islamic State raising alarms about Lahore as a launching pad of
Daesh. The clandestine activities have also been noted in Karachi,
however, this migration to Islamic State has only been reported from
Lahore.

The cases spotted indicate that Syria via Iran is the
route frequented by these “migrants” and religious inclinations suggest
that Jama’at-ud-Dawa is losing its affiliates to Daesh. Recent arrests
in Sialkot also testify this observation.

Bushra, now in Islamic
State, is not only cajoling her husband to join, she is also preaching
to the like-minded women through video-links. Khalid who remained
affiliated with Jama’at-ud-Dawah shared with interrogators the messages
received from her wife urging him to join them for jihad.

Bushra
did M Phil from Punjab University and was honorary principal at
Noor-ul-Hudaa Islamic Center situated in Town Ship, Lahore. How did she
get in touch with Daesh leadership remained to be explored?

Nevertheless,
the information the spy agency has pieced together indicate that Bushra
alias Haleema had been in correspondence with Abu Bakar Baghdadi for
the “clarity of concepts”.While her exchanges with husband are through
WhatsApp, Skype is a channel of her contact with the like-minded women
for persuading them to join jihad.

A widow known by her alias
Arshi is an interesting case. Before moving to Islamic State, she sent
her son on a fact-finding mission who visited Syria along with a friend.
Both of them were unemployed.

They reported positively upon
return that resulted in a decision to move there as a family that
included Arshi, two sons, a niece and a daughter-in-law. Arshi’s family
moved in May along with another family comprising husband, wife and a
daughter. Shahid, the husband is also believed to be linked with
Bushra’s family. Same is the case of Sajid who is in export and import
business and has been frequenting to Turkey.

Aasia, another
teacher at the Islamic center, wanted to leave for Syria but changed her
plan at the eleventh hour upon the insistence of her brother with whom
she has been staying along with kids after divorce, according to a
report of a civilian agency that chronicled the events and network
connection to determine the pattern and flow of migration.

How
many Pakistanis have moved to Syria to join Deash remains anybody’s
guess? Investigation into the recent arrests of Daesh-linked individuals
from Sialkot has also established their travel plans and the
preparation of passport was the only cause of delay and meanwhile they
were arrested.

Our crime correspondent from Lahore adds: Police
are still clueless to the whereabouts of the children and women of three
families who were allegedly kidnapped some six months before in the
jurisdictions of Township, Hunjerwal and Wahdat Colony police stations.
All three families belong to a religious outfit.

Bushra Cheema
alias Haleema Apa and her four children were kidnapped in June and a
case has been registered in Township police station. In Hunjerwal police
station cases of kidnapping of Fatima and Farhana were registered while
in Wahdat Colony police station one Imran got registered a case of
kidnapping of a woman and her five children. When contacted, CCPO
Muhammad Amin has said the three kidnappings happened in July and there
is no information about their joining a terror outfit.